Keep Your Quarters, Forget the Ice Cream

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May 14, 2013

Take a look at your quarters before you roll them up and deposit them at the bank — or worse yet, before you buy an ice cream cone.

Recently, a contributor to Reddit started a thread about a sign he’d seen at a local ice cream shop. The sign advertised a deal: 25 cents for an ice cream cone, provided that the quarter used to pay for the cone was dated 1964 or before. A good deal? Not really. As the Redditor put it, “I think a local business is screwing some people.”

From 1938 to 1964, quarters were made of 90 percent silver. The savvy ice cream store owner must have figured that he would collect all of those mostly silver quarters, watch the cost of silver, and sell them for much more than the cost of an ice cream cone while silver prices are high. This would make the store owner a tidy profit, indeed.

Better yet for consumers is to check the dates on their quarters. The Consumerist advises people that some of these old quarters, especially the ones in good condition, are worth $4 to $6 dollars more than two bits.

Do You Know What You're Worth?

One Redditor reminds his compadres that old quarters such as these sell on eBay for over $4 each. Best practice is to sell the quarters in packs, and let collectors bid the price of the package up.

Then go buy some ice cream for full price to celebrate.

Tell Us What You Think

Is a good deal ever really a good deal? What good deals have you taken that turned out to not be so wonderful in the end? Let us know in the comments section below.